Jophiel wrote:
gbaji wrote:
No. I'm saying that one adviser outlying a strategy one time for one presidential election, in which it doesn't appear to have been used or to have worked...
Tell me you're kidding. You're not honestly this deluded, are you? The friggin' RNC has admitted to using it for decades (Mehlman, not Steele although Steele has admitted to it as well). Keep telling yourself "Oh, my precious
conservatives would
never do that..." and drinking that Kool-Ade.
Since you have refused to explain what you mean when you say "southern strategy", I'm forced to go out on a limb and argue against what I assume you mean. In doing so, I will say that Mehlman's words did not specify a strategy of "wooing white racists from the Democrats", which is the traditional meaning (and what was referred to by the Nixon adviser in question). They are two different things.
What Mehlman was talking about was that because the Dems had so completely sewn up black voters in many districts, the GOP ignored them and sometimes even played on the fact that the Dems were doing this. Um... But that's a response to the Dems strategy. Which is more racist Joph? The guy saying "If you're black, vote Democrat and we'll make sure that you get a disproportionate share of government aid" or the guy saying "If you're white, don't vote Democrat or they'll make you pay for a disproportionate portion of government aid". One is a response to the other. I don't see how pointing out racist policies by the Dems makes one a racist. In fact, it's somewhat absurd that anyone would think this. But labels are easy things to apply, I suppose.
The phrase "southern strategy" is a boogieman used by liberals when attacking the GOP on the issue of race. The only overt use of the phrase to describe an actual proposed racist policy was by the Nixon adviser, and there's no evidence the strategy was actually used. Nixon got 38% of the black vote in 1972, so if he was planing on painting the Dems as a party of black people in order to get white racists to leave the Dems and join the GOP, it seems to have failed pretty completely in both directions. But the left keeps referring back to that and associating every GOP action with regard to race politics (and a bunch that aren't) to it.
It's weak. Doubly so if all you do is just say "cough Southern Strategy cough" as though by just saying two words, you've actually make any sort of point at all. I know you liberals love bumper sticker politics, but that's kinda ridiculous.